In an assessment of poverty in Costa Rica,
a lot of survey firms would randomly
select a bit more than 1,000 homes and
conduct interviews.

But when the Instituto Nacional de
Estadística y Censos does its survey of
homes each year, nearly 200 workers go
house-to-house and visit about 13,500
homes. That is a lot of work.

And some statisticians would say that such
a large sample size makes statistical
insignificance significant.

The central government is expressing its
pleasure that the last Encuesta Nacional
de Hogares shows a reduction in poverty.

The results show a 1.2 percent reduction
in poverty based on a simple income level.
Some 20.5 percent of the homes are
in poverty instead of the 21.8 percent in
2015, said the institute. The percentage
also reflects the fact that the poverty
level was reduced slightly because it is
based on the cost of living index.

Costa Rica also has established a
five-category measurement called the
multidimensional poverty index. This
measures education,

housing,
health, work and social protection via 19
categories. The results of this index, too,
said that poverty has been reduced 1.3
percent from 21.7 percent in 2015 to 20.5
percent this year.

The
survey was done in July and August.

As those who follow the presidential
polling in the United States, a difference
of 1.2 percent or 1.3 percent is not
significant. But with the large size of
the institute’s sample, the math makes the
results seem that way.

This was enough for President Luis
Guillermo Solís to praise his
administration’s social programs for the
perceived reduction.

The institute notes that even with 10,400
fewer homes below the poverty level, there
still are 307,270 households there and
95,000 homes in extreme poverty. The
institute said that the favorable figures
are due, in part, to a 3.6 percent
increase in the average income per person
in the latest survey and a decrease in the
poverty line between June 2015 and last
June of 0.9 percent. Still the numbers
show a 5.4 percent drop from 2010.

The survey also showed an average
household income of 1,027,291 colons
a month, about $1,880. As expected, rural
areas have more poverty than the Central
Valley.

Victim in Ciudad Colón suffered
multiple slashes

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Investigators are seeking the murderer of
a woman identified as European, who was
found in her Ciudad Colón home Wednesday
afternoon.

The woman had been dead for nearly a day,
and investigators said that there was a
large quantity of blood around the first
floor of the dwelling and that the woman
showed multiple

slash marks. Some of the
cuts on the arm may have been defensive
wounds.

The scene was at the Residencial Bulevar
las Palmas, the Cruz Roja said.

Investigators were at the scene into the
evening sorting through the disordered
living quarters. Investigators were not
sure if they were involved in the results
of a home invasion or some other type of
crime.

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A.M.
Costa Rica's professional directory is where
business people who wish to reach the
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responses. If you are interested in being
represented here, please contact the
editor.

JAVIER ZAVALETA
RESIDENCY IN COSTA RICA
A full service immigration
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The country has a construction law that
requires a homeowner to get municipal
permission if renovations are planned that
cost more than 5,000 colons. That’s less
than $10, and, as one lawmaker noted, about
the price of a bag of cement.

So the Comisión de Asuntos Municipales
gave approval and sent to the full
legislature Wednesday a revision of the
50-year-old law that would not require
municipal permission for jobs costing
eight salary bases or less.

The current base salary is 424,200
colones, indexed to the monthly salary of
a judicial employee. This is the sliding
scale Costa Rica uses to compensate for
inflation. So the new cutoff if the
proposal, No. 19.699, passes would be
about 3.4 million colons, about $6,200.

Marco Vinicio Redondo Quirós of the
Partido Acción Ciudadana said that the
current law encourages illegal
construction. The proposal would allow
homeowners to make small renovations
without municipal involvement, he noted.

In fact, many Costa Ricans do a lot of
construction work on days when the
municipal inspectors are not around. That
includes Semana Santa and the period
between Christmas and New Year’s.

That does not just include home
renovations. Some residents use these
periods to hack down trees and do other
work that would bring a fine if an
inspector became aware of them.

Air
Costa Rica photo

A Boeing 737-300 carries the
Costa Rican colors on its tail

Air
Costa Rica says it is beginning flight

By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff

Air Costa Rica said Wednesday that it was
beginning business. The only Costa Rican
flag airline will begin with 60 days of
tourist charter flights, it said.

After the first of the year, it will have
scheduled flights to Guatemala City. The
company said it also plans to fly to the
United States.

The firm has been working for two years to
meet government requirements. The lone
aircraft is a Boeing 737-300 that
carries the colors of the national flag on
its tail.

The airline market is a highly competitive
one. Carlos Víquez, the general
manager, said in a statement that ticket
prices will not be low cost but they will
be at the lower end of the market. The
firm has hired 60 persons, including
pilots, a ground staff and hostesses.

Puntarenas Centro now has
more zika

By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff

Puntarenas Centro with 203 zika cases,
including eight new ones, has edged out
Garabito as the most infected location in
Costa Rica.

Garabito, which includes Jacó, has 162
reported cases but no new ones listed in
the Ministerio de Salud health bulletin
released Wednesday.

Orotina with 103 cases and Esparza with 97
are third and fourth. In all, there
are 1,355 reported cases in Costa Rica
since the beginning of the zika epidemic
in February, according to the health
ministry.

However, many have zika and do not know
it, so the reported cases are only those
for which medical help was sought.

The ministry said that there are 108
pregnant women who had contracted the
disease.

The World Health Organization warns that
the zika virus is linked to abnormalities
in newborn babies and neurological
disorders and that it remains a major
threat as the mosquito-borne disease
continues to spread globally. However,
Costa Rica has not had any home-grown
cases of microcephaly in
babies.

Microcephaly is a birth defect that causes
babies to be born with abnormally small
heads. World Health says 23 countries or
territories have reported cases linked to
zika. Most of these cases, more than
2,000, are found in Brazil.

In addition to microcephaly, 19 countries
and territories have reported an increased
incidence of Guillain-Barre Syndrome, an
autoimmune disorder that has also been
linked to zika. There has been one such
case in Costa Rica.

Another quake for the
Central Pacific

By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff

The central Pacific coast was hit with
another ground shaker Wednesday.

The Observatorio Vulcanológico y
Sismológico de Costa Rica said the quake
at 4:28 p.m. was 4.6 magnitude. The
epicenter appeared to be 3.7 kilometers
north northwest of Pasito de
Savegre, close to Quepos Centro.

The Red Sismológica Nacional estimated the
magnitude at 4.4. The quake was felt in
the Central Valley.

The epicenter was inland, but the quake
Tuesday of a similar magnitude was a few
kilometers offshore.

Jewelry store stickup
suspect caught

By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff

A man held up a jewelry store in Heredia
Centro late Wednesday morning, stuffed
rings, earrings, chains and bracelets into
a bag and fled.

Fuerza Pública officers caught up with two
suspects about a kilometer away. They were
riding double on a motorcycle.

Judicial investigators said that the
motorcycle passenger pointed a firearm at
pursuing police but then lost his balance
and fell off the vehicle along with a bag
of jewelry. He was detained.

News
from the Spanish-language pressTranslated
into English

Costa Rica Report news feeds are disabled on archived pages.

Have you seen
these stories?From A.M. Costa
Rica(Text version is HERE!)

Costa Ricans consume just 1.32 liters of wine per year
per person, and even though prices appear to be high,
they are not bad by world standards.

SHAREaCAMPER, the Germany camper swapping service,
prepared a study of wines from 65 countries because it
is promoting wine tourism. Costa Rica does not have any
commercial vineyards, and the only wine is imported.

The average price here of the 10 most imported wines is
$14.89 liter, according to the survey. That is a
750 milliliter bottle. That puts Costa Rica in 33rd
position in terms of price

Said the firm:

The United States ranked in position 35 with an average
cost of $15.23 for a 750 milliliter bottle of wine. This
compares to Paraguay, which offered the least expensive
wine at an average $7.55 per bottle, while at the other
end of the ranking the price in the United Arab Emirates
is more than five times higher at $39.02 per bottle. The
United States also had the 14th most expensive
local wine costs (out of countries which produce the

SHAREaCAMPER
graphic

their own wine) at $17.61 per 750 millimeter bottle.

The company said that the price of wine is dependent on
several factors, including taxes, the lobbying of local
producers, and of course the type of wine purchased.

Annual consumption of wine was 61.3 liters per capital
in Luxembourg, 55.4 liters in Portugal and 53.6 liters
in France, according to the survey. The full list of
prices is HERE!

They say that someday insects will take over the earth.
But first, they probably will take over the menu.

More and more research is being done as a response to
predictions of a world food shortage or for fear that
conventional farming methods and the western diet is bad
for global warming.

For most expats the main encounter with insects has been
the worm at the bottom of a glass of mezcal. Have a couple
of shots, and chugging the larva is no big deal but not
very nutritious.

There have been a few academic attempts to infuse food
with insects in Costa Rica, but so far there are no
commercial operations, mainly because the western diet is
not yet ready for bugs. But diners are quick to order
tropical lobsters and crabs. They sure look like big bugs.

Of course in some African and Asian countries bugs are on
the menu. And the warmer latitudes are good spots for a
year-round bug ranch.

In the western world, the bulk of the edible bugs end up
as a powder to provide protein to standard foods.

One concern about a bug diet is the availability of
necessary trace elements. A report Wednesday from the
American Chemical Society said that researchers analyzed
grasshoppers, crickets, mealworms and buffalo worms for
their mineral contents and estimated how much of each
nutrient would likely get absorbed if eaten, using a lab
model of human digestion.

The insects had varying levels of iron, calcium,
copper, magnesium, manganese and zinc, the society said.

Iron is a particularly important nutrient that is often
missing in non-meat diets, causing iron-deficiency anemia,
which can lead to lower cognition, immunity, poor
pregnancy outcomes and other problems, said the society.

The researchers from King’s College London, said that
crickets had higher levels of iron than the other insects
did. And minerals including calcium, copper and zinc from
grasshoppers, crickets and mealworms are more readily
available for absorption than the same minerals from beef,
they added.

The results support the idea that eating bugs could
potentially help meet the nutritional needs of the world’s
growing population, the researchers said, according to the
society.

Vacation, travel and
hospitality

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Federal regulators have given approval for U.S. clinical
trials of a Cuban-developed lung cancer vaccine.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the Food and Drug
Administration’s decision Wednesday at the Roswell Park
Cancer Institute in Buffalo.

Lung cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer
in both men and women, according to the American Cancer
Society, which estimates nearly 160,000 Americans will die
from the disease this year, with non-small cell cancer the
most frequently diagnosed type, by far.

The Cuban lung cancer vaccine, called CIMAvax, was
developed by the Center of Molecular Immunology in Havana.
It works as a form of immunotherapy.

CIMAvax does not target and kill cancer cells directly, as
many forms of chemotherapy do. Instead it targets a
protein found naturally in the body, epidermal growth
factor, that signals cells to grow, and in the case of
cancer cells, to grow uncontrollably.

The vaccine stimulates the immune system, leading the body
to produce antibodies that stop epidermal growth factor
from attaching to cancer cells. The Roswell Park
institute’s chief executive, Candace Johnson, says the
protein acts as food for the cells of non-small cell lung
cancer, and they cannot survive without it.

With the Cuban vaccine stimulating the patient’s own
immune system, cancer cells are blocked from receiving the
protein they need, and they die.

“And it works, that's the beauty of it,” Ms. Johnson said.

Roswell Park is the first center to receive permission to
sponsor the U.S. testing of any Cuban medical therapy and
“bring Cuban science to the U.S.,” as Ms. Johnson said.
She and Cuomo have been negotiating to win Cuban and U.S.
approval for the landmark clinical trial for more than a
year.

The trial is expected to start within a month for 60 to 90
patients.

CIMAvax will be tested in combination with an
immunotherapy medication intended to strengthen the body’s
built-in defenses against an array of disease-causing
invaders, such as viruses and bacteria.

The idea of using the immune system to attack cancer is
not new, and two similar vaccines are in the early stages
of development in the U.S.

Trump turns to hotel business
as Washington property opens

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services

With poll numbers showing him falling further behind
Hillary Clinton in key battleground states, Donald Trump
this week focused on promoting some of his signature
properties instead of more traditional campaigning. For an
unorthodox politician, it was a return to form.

“Two years ago when we told the city Trump would be coming
to Pennsylvania Avenue in 2016, we had no idea what we
were foreshadowing,” Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter and
executive vice president of development and acquisitions
at the Trump Organization, said at a ribbon-cutting
ceremony Wednesday for the Trump Hotel in the nation’s
capital.

The entire family was on stage for the event: Trump, his
wife, Melania, and his four children, each equipped with a
pair of golden scissors. Slicing together, they cut apart
a deep red ribbon bearing the Trump name in the lobby of
the hotel, which occupies the landmark Old Post Office
Tower in downtown Washington, D.C., midway between the
White House and U.S. Capitol.

Guests wearing VIP badges, flawless in their makeup and
designer clothing, chatted over light breakfast pastries
before the remarks, and left promptly once the event was
over, to avoid the reporters, cameras and protesters
outside.

The first speakers, Trump Hotels CEO Eric Danziger and
Ivanka Trump, focused almost entirely on the hotel itself,
but the Republican presidential candidate’s speech floated
seamlessly between brand and campaign.

“Our theme today is five words: under budget, ahead of
schedule,” Trump told his attendees, referring to the
hotel. But he pivoted immediately to point out that the
opposite, over budget and behind schedule, was surely the
theme of the federal government, as it has been led by
President Barack Obama, whom Trump links inextricably to
Mrs. Clinton, his Democratic opponent in the presidential
election, now 13 days away.​

Trump delivered a very similar speech a few days earlier,
during a stop in Florida that promoted one of his golf
courses.

“His campaign is his brand. His brand is his campaign,”
Sarah Oates, a professor at the University of Maryland,
said. “For most political candidates this would seem odd.
For him it makes perfect sense. He’s never distinguished
between the business brand and the candidate brand. In
fact, he deliberately links the two and campaigns on this
platform of being a smart businessman.”

As if mirroring the blurring of boundaries between brand
and campaign, protesters gathered on Pennsylvania Avenue
outside the Trump Hotel, holding signs calling out what
they said was the candidate’s racist campaign and also
calling for a boycott of Trump hotels and products.

This is far from the first time the Trump brand has met
the word boycott. Recently, the Twitter hashtag
“grabyourwallet” began calling on women across the United
States to shun clothes and shoes designed and marketed by
Ivanka Trump.

To those who have purchased Ivanka Trump’s signature
products, the message has been either return them for a
refund or, if that’s not possible, burn them as a protest
against the designer’s support of her father during the
presidential campaign.

Donald Trump’s brands have been tarnished as well, with
travel sites such as Hipmunk reporting a decline in
business at his hotels and research group Brand Keys
noting reduced sales of clothing and watches branded with
his name.

The Trump Organization has denied any decline in business
caused by the months of fiery political exchanges, and a
corporate press release quoted Ivanka Trump as saying,
“Our business at Trump Hotels is stronger than ever.”

However, Trump executives also have announced they will be
rebranding the group’s hotels in the future. Lodgings that
were Trump will become Scion Hotels, a name chosen because
it means descendant of a notable family, according to the
news release announcing the new company.

But hard numbers on how much sales of Trump items have
declined are hard to establish, and the campaign’s
long-term effects on the brand are yet to be seen.

“We don’t have any precedent with this,” Ms. Oates said.
“The future will have to say what effect running for
president has on your brand.”

Ms. Clinton, campaigning in the key battleground election
state of Florida, went to the Adele concert Tuesday, where
the pop artist endorsed her candidacy even as she
acknowledged she can't vote for her because she is a
British citizen.

Wildlife fund reports a decline
in species around the globe

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services

Wildlife populations across the globe have dropped nearly
60 percent since 1970 and human activity is to blame,
according to a report released by conservation groups.

The joint report produced by the World Wildlife Fund and
the Zoological Society of London warned that if the
current trends continue, the decline in world populations
of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles could
reach two-thirds by 2020, an annual loss of about 2
percent.

"Wildlife is disappearing within our lifetimes at an
unprecedented rate," said Marco Lambertini, director
general of World Wildlife Fund International.

The report is based on an index of species compiled for
long-term-monitoring by scientists. It consists of 3,700
species of animals from more than 14,000 different
populations around the world.

According to the report, the drastic reduction in wildlife
populations can be directly attributed to human
development. A growing human population, which has more
than doubled since 1960 to around 7.4 billion, means less
room and food for other animals and could push them out of
existence if changes aren’t made.

“We need to transition to an approach that decouples human
and economic development from environmental degradation,
perhaps the deepest cultural and behavioral shifts ever
experienced by any civilization,” Lambertini said.

The environmental groups are looking to governments to
help make that happen. Lambertini told the French news
service AFP a recent sustainable development plan launched
by the United Nations could help offset the threats to
biodiversity.

"We have succeeded in making a strong business case for
climate," Lambertini said. "Now we have to make an equally
strong business case for conservation of natural systems."

Army graduates 10 women
from basic infantry course

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services

The U.S. Army hit a milestone Wednesday, as the first
women graduated from the military branch’s Infantry Basic
Officer Leader’s Course.

Ten women received their Infantry blue chord at Fort
Benning in the southern U.S. state of Georgia, officially
making them infantry officers and giving them the ability
to lead an Army platoon of infantry combat soldiers.

The Army’s infantry is its main land combat force,
responsible for defending the U.S. against ground threats
and capturing, destroying and repelling enemy ground
forces.

Including the new graduates, there are 11 female infantry
officers in the U.S. Army.

Capt. Kristen Griest became the first female infantry
officer earlier this year after completing the Army’s
Maneuver Captains Career Course and transferring into the
infantry.

Fort Benning public affairs officer Chris Warner said
Wednesday that rather than leading a platoon right away,
all 10 women graduates have decided to continue the
unspoken tradition of moving from the Infantry Basic
Officer Leader’s course to Ranger school, the Army’s elite
combat training course.

Only three women, Capt. Griest, Capt. Shaye Haver and Maj.
Lisa Jaster, have completed that elite course since it was
opened up to women in 2015. Capt. Haver and Maj. Jaster
are not infantry officers.

The Infantry Basic Officer Leader’s course and the Armor
Basic Officer Leader’s course were not open to women until
this year. The Army is currently training 15 women at the
Armor Basic Officer Leader’s Course at Fort Benning, which
will be completed at the end of November.

The Army's armor division carries out tank and forward
reconnaissance operations on the battlefield.

More oversight for bosses
urged in banking companies

By the A.M. Costa Rica wire
services

A U.S. government oversight body is proposing a way to
hold banking and investment executives more accountable
for criminal activity and fraud committed by staffers
against their customers.

An inspector general is suggesting that top Wall Street
executives be required to sign an annual statement
promising that criminal or civil fraudulent activity did
not occur while they were in charge, a pledge that could
lead to more top executives being sent to prison.

The proposal is included in a quarterly report sent to
Congress on Wednesday by the Troubled Asset Relief
Program, which was created in 2008 to bail out a U.S.
financial system that was battered by historic crashes in
the housing and securities markets.

The report said 85 bankers have been charged with a crime
and 36 have been sent to prison while more than $10
billion in misappropriated money has been recovered in the
past few years.

While TARP has been successful at prosecuting top
executives of small- to medium-sized banks, it has not
done the same with chief executive officers at large Wall
Street firms.

TARP Special Inspector General Christy Goldsmith Romero
said she felt compelled to suggest a reform of the
financial system for the first time after seeing many
cases where top executives seemed immune from prosecution.

"If a CEO says that their institution is too big or too
complex to be able to certify about crime or fraud, then
they have a much bigger problem, one that should be
unacceptable, particularly at banks deemed so systematic
that taxpayers bailed them out," Ms. Goldsmith Romero said
in the report.

The proposal to get tough on top banking and investment
executives comes as many citizens are upset they have yet
to fully recover from the 2008 financial meltdown,
America's worst financial crisis since the Great
Depression in the 1930s.

CEO accountability resurfaced as a top priority for some
lawmakers in September after Wells Fargo and Co., a
financial services company with nearly $2 trillion in
assets, agreed to pay $185 million to settle claims that
lower level workers may have created 2 million accounts
without customers' knowledge. Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf
resigned in the wake of the scandal, but U.S. Sen.
Elizabeth Warren and other legislators believe he should
also be criminally prosecuted.

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9070-12/5/16

For
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9060-11/3/16

Costa Rica
penthouse for sale
5 -story penthouse for sale.
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9017-12/1/16

Spectacular
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We invite you to a horseback tour of 187
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Australian police have interviewed top
Vatican official George Pell in Rome over
decades-old sexual assault allegations,
but authorities said no charges were
filed. Pell is a cardinal.

A spokeswoman for Australia’s Victoria
Police Department said three members of
the police force traveled to Rome last
week and Pell agreed voluntarily to be
interviewed.

“As a result of the interview, further
investigations are continuing. We are not
prepared to comment further at this time,”
spokeswoman Amara Bostock said.

The investigation stems in part from the
claims of two men who say Pell, the
Vatican’s finance chief and a close
advisor to Pope Francis, fondled them at a
pool in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, in
the late 1970’s. The men are now in their
40s.

Since the investigation began earlier this
year, Pell has denied the claims made
against him and accused the Australian
Broadcasting Corp., which first reported
the allegations, of running a scandalous
smear campaign against him.

The ABC report detailed alleged misconduct
involving Pell that dated from the 1970s
to the 1990s. In total, ABC said it had
obtained statements from eight
complainants, witnesses and family members
tied to the investigation.

Wednesday, Pell again denied the
allegations and said he would continue to
cooperate with Victoria Police until the
investigation is finalized, according to a
statement from his office.

In August, Pope Francis said he wouldn’t
address the allegations against Pell and
told reporters they should avoid
concluding a media verdict, a verdict
based on gossip.

Two strong quakes rattle
central Italy

By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services

Two strong temblors shook central Italy
Wednesday night, not far from the area
struck by a deadly quake in August.

A 5.4-magnitude quake was followed about
two hours later by a stronger 6-magnitude
temblor that was centered near the town of
Castelsantangelo sul Nera.

The earthquakes were felt in Rome, more
than 150 kilometers to the south.

No deaths are reported but officials in
several small towns say older buildings
and churches that were damaged in the
August quake collapsed. At least two
people were injured in the town of Visso
and power is out in much of the region.

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From Page 7:

Medical device maker invests $55
million

By the A.M. Costa Rica
staff

The British firm of Smith & Nephew has
invested $55 million in a new plant in a facility
in the Zona Franca Coyol, Alajuela, Casa
Presidencial said.

The company is expected to take on 250 new
employees. The firm already employs, 1,700.

The company specializes in making instruments and
implants to carry out minimally invasive surgery to repair tendons, knees, hips and shoulders.
Many devices are used in sports medicine.

The New York Stock Exchange-listed the firm in one of
the country's many medical device manufactures
that export more than $2 billion a year, according
to the Coalición Costarricense de Iniciativas de
Desarrollo, one of the country’s promotional
agencies.